Some of the country’s brightest minds in space exploration will be in Boston this week, shining a light on research opportunities on the International Space Station.
“It’s an outreach effort to those who might find a use for the space station for development,” said James Kirkpatrick, executive director of the American Astronautical Society. “This conference serves to raise that awareness and gets a lot of people beating on the door saying I want to do this.”
The International Space Station Research and Development Conference kicks off Tuesday, featuring a keynote address from SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk. NASA astronauts Cady Coleman, Karen Nyberg and Sunita Williams also are scheduled speakers.
The U.S. portion of the International Space Station, along with astronauts who take jaw-dropping pictures, is home to a national research laboratory for biology, health and other experiments. Recent experiments include plant growth in microgravity and research into bone density and muscle loss, which occur quicker in space.
While much of the research is related to spaceflight and space exploration, there are many qualities of the ISS, including higher radiation and different exposure to light than on Earth, that make it an attractive place to do other research.
“The majority of scientific research being conducted on the ISS is life sciences,” said Angus McQuilken, a spokesman for the Mass. Life Sciences Center who will be speaking at the conference. “The ISS is a truly unique platform for research that can’t be found anywhere on Earth, it has unique attributes that lend themselves to research.”
The conference is in its fourth year, and has come to Boston in part because of the life sciences research on the ISS.
Ras Labs of Quincy has an experiment aboard the ISS to test the effects of radiation on the synthetic muscles it is developing. The company’s products could be used in dangerous environments like the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan.
“It’s a real universal environment that is very difficult to truly replicate here on Earth,” said Lenore Rasmussen, founder and CTO of Ras Labs. “Whether you’re in space or whether you’re on Earth, a lot of times you really need a robot in places and environments where you cannot send a human.”
Likely hanging over the conference will be the explosion of a SpaceX rocket last week that was bound for the ISS.
Along with supplies for the astronauts in space, the Falcon 9 rocket was carrying additional research experiments when it exploded.
“All that work, all that effort, it is heartbreaking,” Rasmussen said. “I really feel for SpaceX, for everyone in involved.”
